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Need More Love
Plot: Kominsky Crumb's childhood on Long Island obviously resonates deeply with her, as multiple comics discuss her father's poor treatment of her and his questionable business enterprises that seem to have included mob connections. While she continually draws herself as ugly and fat in these comics, pictures sprinkled throughout show her to be a cute, normal girl quite unlike that of her imagination. Her father's death from cancer at 42 adds to the strange dynamics of her memories. An early marriage, followed by a move to Arizona, followed by an early divorce lead to Aline Kominsky's San Francisco advenure, where she falls in with a group of women chronicling their experiences through comics. Kominsky becomes part of the scene and meets R. Crumb during this period. Her relationship with him strains her relations with the women authors, as R. Crumb (and perhaps men in general) are seen as at best misogynist and at worst the enemy. Aline's not interested in going that route. In many ways, Aline Kominsky and R. Crumb's life together from that point is traditional storybook, living out in the countr and having a daughter. What wasn’t traditional was that she was in an open marriage. She talks about or alludes to multiple affairs on both sides of the ledger that remind you the marriage isn't quite as traditional as it appears on its face. In fact, she describes having a "second husband" in France (where she and R. Crumb live), and tells of his flirtations when he returns to the United States for business reasons. Purpose: In what could best be described as a mixed-media autobiography, underground comic author Aline Kominsky Crumb pieces together her real-life comics, written text, interviews, paintings and photographs to capture a life less ordinary in Need More Love: A Graphic Memoir. Her funny/sad tales show a woman bewildered by her place in society and determined to find her own way. These stories touch on every phase of her existence from childhood, to sexual obsessions, food, and motherhood and, of course, her art Structure: The structure of Aline Kominsky-Crumb’s graphic memoir, Need More Love'' could best be described as a mixed-media autobiography. It’s'' chronologically ordered, and divided into five chapters; Post War Jerks, Escape, Love Marriage Motherhood, Mid-life Crisis, and The Kominsky Code. The last chapter, The Kominsky Code wraps up the entire book, with an interview between Aline and her publisher, Zaro. In the first four chapters, Aline incorporates comics from her previous works that fit under the chapter’s time period. This explains why the comics vary in colour, medium, and the quality of art. Some of the comics shown are from Dirty Laundry, which is a comic series that Aline worked on with her husband, Robert. Aline’s and Robert’s styles are very different, this makes distinguishing between the two effortless. While the comics are depictions of specific events, the memoir also includes text that explains the stories behind them. There are also photographs of people, and it becomes interesting to see Aline’s depiction of herself and her family. The Kominsky Code is an interview defining what Aline is doing in her life “right now”. The interview goes in depth about Aline’s view on consumerism, keeping fit, and fashion. Aline gives many tips, like how she kept fit and how to find outfits that match who you are. At the very end, there is a short interview with Sophie (Aline’s daughter), talking about her views on her mother’s career. Significance of the Title: The title comes from Aline’s outlook that people in general need more love in their lives. Growing up in Long Island, Aline didn’t receive enough love as a kid, she spent much of her life trying to make up for it (Kominsky-Crumb, 2007, p. 10). Naming the book Need More Love is her attempt in spreading love to others. Aline believes that human relationships and society in general is lacking in love, and people should have more compassion and empathy towards each other (Kominsky-Crumb, 2007, p. 10). Context: Historical: Aline grew up in Long Island, New York during the 1950’s where America had the image of prosperity and efficiency (Kominsky-Crumb, 2007, p. 14). The reality of living in America was filled with the pressure to succeed, which created stress on her family (Kominsky-Crumb, 2007, p. 14). As a result, her parents coped with alcoholism, constant fighting, and verbal and sometimes physical abuse towards Aline and her younger brother (Kominsky-Crumb, 2007, p. 14). Aline chronicled her warring parents and emotionally abusive father ("you can't shine shit" he says of her use of makeup as a teen) as well as chronicling her sexually promiscuous early adulthood (which included getting pregnant and giving up the baby for adoption). Her parents were poor, and Aline’s mother became a “nervous wreck” and started taking prescription drugs when she slept (Kominsky-Crumb, 2007, p. 45). Aline and her brother would find her pills and helped themselves to it, this lead to a lifetime for substance abuse for Aline (Kominsky-Crumb, 2007, p. 45). Cultural: Being raised in a Jewish household has had a significant impact on the way Aline tells her stories. She uses self-deprecating humour that comes from a very old tradition of Jewish storytelling and writing, which was passed down by her Grandpa Joe (Kominsky-Crumb, 2007, p. 333). Her family had a classic Jewish sense of humour, where they used storytelling to make fun of themselves to make everyone else laugh (Kominsky-Crumb, 2007, p. 333). Exaggeration was used in storytelling to make a philosophical point, and ultimately make others relax and respond (Kominsky-Crumb, 2007, p. 333). Another cultural influence on Aline is the Jewish evil eye symbol. One of the contributing factors of moving to France was because of the Evil eye. Aline thought her family was too cozy in America, and the evil eye would shake things up for them to “keep the score straight” (Kominsky-Crumb, 2007, p. 251). Aline mentions that she wears an evil eye necklace, because she believes in the curse.). Technical Aspects: Self-Deprecating Humour: Aline presents herself in a very self-deprecating but humorous way. She’s brutally honest and talks about embarrassing aspects of her life without any shame. It’s in her personality to be very down to earth, and she’s able to admit, “I spent thousands (of my husband’s money) on therapy,” and, “I got healthy enough to do something crazy like force my family to move to France!” (Kominsky-Crumb, 2007, p. 282). Many people wouldn’t say such self-deprecating statements so bluntly, but Aline does in a humorous way. Characterization: The characterization in the memoir seems very exaggerated and bold, mainly because of the way Aline depicts them in the comics. Aline has a very outgoing personality, she has high amounts of energy and is always moving around. She has drawn herself in a way that really embraces her personality. With thicker arms and legs, she looks quite muscular in her comics. This contrasts Robert, as he’s depicted as a skinny, frail man which matches his quiet demeanor. Images: The comics vary in levels of professional quality, because some parts of the comics were drawn by Robert. The ones that are complete done by Aline are harder to read; the lines are crooked, the writing is jammed in tiny speech bubbles, and the overall quality of the art isn’t that great. Aline also likes to break many of the comic rules, like changing her outfit in the middle of a comic strip. It makes the comics harder to understand, as there’s a break in continuity. The Dirty Laundry comics (collaboration between Aline and Robert) for example, have more of a professional feel to them, and are kinder to the eyes. Colour: Colour varies within Aline’s memoir, because the comics were taken from a variety of older works. The majority of the comics are done in black and white, and color is commonly used on cartoons that take up one page. They tend to be about general statements, and almost look like title pages. There are a few comics done in colour, but they tend to be very short stories. Although colour is used sparingly, the colours are very vivid and saturated. Like her comics, Aline’s paintings also use saturated colors. References Kominsky-Crumb, A. (2007). Need more love: A Graphic Memoir. London: MQ Publications. Category:Memoir Analysis